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Chapter 4: Pitch and Melody

Major Scales- A scale that is produced only with the white keys of the piano. Western Culture associates this scale with happiness.

Pentatonic Scales- Scales that have five pitches per octave. They are hard to screw up as it is hard to produce dissonant notes with them.

Minor Scales- Like major scales, they have seven pitches per octave, but the interval between the second and third degrees are a bit larger than those of a major scale. Western Culture associates this scale with sadness.

Blues Scale- Combines features of major, minor, pentatonic, and African scales. Found commonly in blues or jazz.

Octave

All 12 pitches in a Western (can be seen on a keyboard) is known as the chromatic scale.

Scale- An ascending or descending series of notes that have different pitches.

Notes that have the same pitch but are higher or lower than each other classified as an octave apart.

People can sing the same melody in different octave ranges, be they higher or lower.

Melody- Known as the sequence of pitches in a musical piece.

Melodic Range- The distance in pitch from the lowest note in the song to the highest note in the song.

Melodic Direction- How the melody moves. It could move upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending). Usually is depicted in the progression from note to note.

Melodic Contour- The overall shape or distribution of the melody. Is often a product of its range, direction, and other features.

Pitches

The different pitches in the Western music system are A, B, C, D, E, F and G. Pitches that fall halfway in between the aforementioned pitch classifications are assigned a flat or a sharp.

Sharp- Makes a pitch a bit higher.

Flat- Makes a pitch a bit lower.

Natural- A note that is neither sharpened nor flattened.

Pitch- Refers to how high or low tones are, which is related to frequency.

Certain instruments have determinate pitches, where the notes can be defined. Examples include guitar, piano, violin, etc. Other instruments have indeterminate pitches, where the notes cannot be defined by the different pitches in the Western Music System. Examples include drums, triangles, cymbals, etc.